


Something Like Hope

by highkingmariot



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 07:09:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18068903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highkingmariot/pseuds/highkingmariot
Summary: Post 4x06/4x07. After the talking animals regain their voices, Fen brings Margo a message that she'd given up hoping for.Or, the show won't tell Margo that Eliot's alive so I will.





	Something Like Hope

Closing her eyes, Margo pushed against the beginnings of a headache and tried not to think about the piles of paperwork that still lay before her. She pressed her fingertips to her temples, hoping the touch would ease the steadily building pressure in her skull, but when she dropped her hands and opened her eyes the stacks of responsibility were still there, and so was the pain behind her eyes.

The council had disbanded an hour or so ago to distribute the last of the beet juice, and she’d left them to it, knowing that they had it well in hand. She’d have loved to sneak off to bed instead, but somehow there was always more work to do. Having Tick on side wasn’t as much help as it should have been, considering that she needed to check every other thing he did in order to make sure he wasn’t going to pull another fast one on her.

Fen, on the other hand, had been a huge asset. She wouldn’t have left Fillory in the hands of someone that she didn’t have complete faith in, but the girl had still managed to surprise her, even if she had approximately sixteen times more emotions than she knew how to deal with. Rafe had proven useful as well, even if he had spent the last week moping and fretful over Abigail.

And Josh… well, she wasn't going to think about Josh right now.

Running footsteps drew her attention away from finance reports, and… other things. Glancing up at the door, she arched her eyebrow when Fen rushed into the room, her arms filled with – for fucks sake. She had half a dozen bunnies cradled in her arms, half of them trying to squirm out of her grip. “Margo! Margo,” she said, and in Margo’s experience, she sounded far too excited for it to be anything good. The bunnies were speaking, talking over each other in their efforts to get their messages out.

She slowed to a walk for her last few steps as Margo pushed herself to her feet and stepped out from behind the table, opening her eyes wide. “Hey, Fen,” she said, speaking slowly. “Hi. What the fuck is going on?”

“It’s – it’s the bunnies,” she said, her voice shaking. Margo glanced down at the bunnies in her arms,  but she couldn’t make out the individual messages as they rasped over the top of each other. “These are the bunnies that we received yesterday – they haven’t been able to talk, to give us their messages, but –“

“I know all of this, sweetie,” Margo said, stepping forward to take Fen's arms in her hands. Christ, would the girl ever focus? “Whatever it is, spit it out.”

Taking a deep breath, Fen paused for a moment before a smile spread over her face, her eyes alight. “They couldn’t give us their messages before. But, now they can. And – and Margo –“

“Eliot's alive.”

Everything else faded to white noise around her - she knew Fen was still talking, the other bunnies still shouting their messages, but Margo couldn't hear a thing. Staring at the small black and white bunny in Fen’s arms, she reached out and snatched up, gripping it too tightly with both hands as she held it up in front of her face, staring into its dumb little bunny eyes. She’d heard it wrong, she knew she had, she –

“Eliot's alive.”

_Eliot..._

“Margo,” Fen says softly, and when she made herself look up from the tiny black eyes to meet Fen's, she found them overflowing with tears. Margo just felt… numb. Or… no, there was something there, a twinge of something inside of her, a crack forming beneath the surface.

“Fen, what -” she started, her voice low and calm as she forced that feeling back down where it belonged. It felt like hope but more than that it felt like pain, and she didn't have time for either. Not when it couldn't possibly be true, it couldn't -

“Eliot's alive.”

“Sweet fuck,” she snapped, jumping when the bunny in her hands spoke again, its wretched croak like a knife in her heart, twisting and tugging until all of the walls holding her together started to fracture. The others seemed to take its words as a cue and started up again, and she took a step closer to Fen, desperately trying to make out the individual messages.

“Building body for Monster.”

“Trapped but alive.”

“We'll save him. Love, Q.”

Cold spreading through her, Margo stared at the bunnies, trying to make the words form some kind of logical meaning. They couldn't mean what she thought they meant. “It's a trick,” she said slowly, her voice sounding detached even to her own ears.

Glancing up at Fen, she found her smiling at her, and it was immediately clear that she wasn't entertaining even the possibility of it being a ruse. Her cheeks were still wet with tears, her eyes practically glowing. Margo felt sick. “It's real, Margo,” Fen said, her voice full of wonder.

But it couldn't be. Margo blinked at her, for once unable to make herself form a response, genuine or otherwise. It just… it couldn't be true. How she could have gone on with her life, not trying to save him, not fighting tooth and nail to destroy the thing living inside the one person who understood her, who loved her, who -

Who she needed.

The _one person,_ and she -

Thrusting the bunny into Fen's hands, she ignored her confused protest as she struggled to balance the half dozen small animals. Forging all of her emotions into steely determination, Margo reached up and took her crown in both of her hands, lifting it from her head and taking care not to pull at her own hair as she did so. Fen's eyes were wide, her lips parted, but she still bent her knee slightly as Margo placed the crown carefully on her head. “What…?”

“I have to go,” she said, her firm voice giving only the slightest indication of the turmoil rolling higher inside of her. “Either to break the bones of whoever is fucking with me, or -”

Or -

Or to save Eliot.

Because he was alive.

She had to get back there.

“Send one of those back for Uber Twenty Three. Now.”

Turning on her heel, she strode out of the throne room, not slowing or turning her head until she reached her bedroom. Shutting the door behind her, she leaned heavily back against it, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Holding it in her chest for a moment, she let it out slowly, and as the air left her lungs she finally let it hit her, the small shock of relief, confusion, agony. It all swelled through her gut, up her chest, and she pressed her lips together to stop them trembling as a hot tear spilled down her cheek.

She'd stared into his eyes, and had seen only emptiness.

But he was in there. He might be in there.

_Eliot._

Opening her eyes, she swatted the tear from her skin and pushed off from the door, squaring her shoulders.

It was time to get to work.


End file.
